Our next stop after the fish market was Harajuku. With Gwen Stefani in our heads, we made our way via the subway. While it is a tricker system than most cities, people were once again very helpful and made sure we arrived at our proper destination. After getting only slightly turned around upon exiting the subway we eventually made it to the famous street.

Harajuku is one of those places where you instantly know you’re in the right place as soon as you turn a corner. One minute we were walking down a quite side street, the next we were in a bright and bustling land where music was blasting, crazy clothing shops were prevalent, and crepe stands filled the street.  It was so fun getting to see the fashion and hoping in and out of clothing stores.

Later that night and after a quick dinner we were ready for our night in Tokyo. We decided we would walk to Golden Gai, which wasn’t terribly far from our weekend apartment in Shibuya. However, being that it was February and quite cold at night we found ourselves seeking shelter along the way. This is how we found the European Beer Cafe. We selected this bar mostly because the sign was written in English and we assumed a beer cafe couldn’t be a mistake. We were not disappointed.

We opened the outside door to find it was a basement level bar. Climbing down a small flight of stairs we came to a little wooden door. What stood behind was made for a cozy English evening written about in storybooks. We walked in to find a small bar with maybe 30 seats or so, ten of which were in a steep loft overlooking a wall of glassware and bottles. We picked our table and our beer and settled in for an hour of warmth before attempting the walk to Golden Gai once again.
.  .  .
A couple of hours later we had made it to Golden Gai.  If you haven’t heard of this part of Tokyo, it’s essentially a collection of tiny alley ways which house over 200 bars. That said, bar is a loosely used term. Many of these so called bars are actually part of the owner’s home and only fit a handful or so of people. Talk about cozy. What is so cool about this area is that I really can’t imagine there being something like it anywhere else in the world; certainly not in the U.S.

We had read that it was not uncommon for many bar owners to turn down foreigners due to lack of space or not wanting to work with the language barrier. We were warned that we would probably be given “the X” which is when the owner would simply put his or her arms out in the shape of an X loosely, yet literally, translated as “you can’t sit with us” …and we received quite a few. Surprisingly out of 200 plus bars we were having trouble finding even one to let us have a seat. My favorite experience in our search was walking up a steep and narrow staircase, many of the bars were located on the second floor of these small buildings, only to see a small, frail hand- no face or body to be seen- come around and slowly close the sliding door right in front of our faces. Message received.

Having walked by and been turned down by dozens of bars we were starting to feel nervous about the rest of the night when we decided to circle back to one of the bars with a sign reading “no cover. no scams. foreigners welcome.” We skipped this bar on our first go around thinking the place with an English sign saying “no scams” would probably be the most likely place to be scammed. However, 30 minutes in the cold and dozens of rejections starts to change your mind.

We made our way up yet another narrow staircase to find a relatively spacious bar that sat about a dozen patrons and even had a little bit of extra standing room. We took it as a good sign that a handful of foreigners were leaving just as our group of four was walking in. We were the only ones in the bar just long enough to get a drink and some snacks from the bartender as he showed us how to play some vintage 90’s games we had nearly forgotten existed in our childhoods. Anyone remember crocodile dentist?

As the night went on we found it increasingly harder to leave. We were joined by some members of the U.S. Army, fellow expats teaching in Korea, and even a couple of local Japanese regulars. One of my favorite parts of the night was stumbling upon a guitar in the corner of the bar and discovering someone knew how to play. The entire bar, which was completely now completely packed with upwards of 20 people, joined in for a few choruses of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”.

Looking around at the collection of people I was surrounded by, all crammed into this unbelievably small wood paneled bar with walls covered in travel photos, post cards, and world currencies, I couldn’t help but feel beyond grateful for the opportunities that led me to be in this place with my best friends. It’s an incredible memory to have as I continue in my travels and time living abroad.

The next day would be our last in Tokyo, and we were excited to visit the Asakusa Senso-ji Temple.